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Chapter Four

George quickly opened the door to let Angelina in. She stepped in shyly and stood off to the side so he could could lock up again, putting up a sign that said "OPENING LATE."

"You didn't have to do that." Said Angelina in a quiet voice George wasn't used to from her.

He couldn't bring himself to speak--he stared at Angelina, she looked just as beautiful as ever although there was a hollow sadness in her brown eyes. It seemed that her eyes reflected his; they were different in color but there was no misplacing that loneliness in them. He wanted to tell her he knew how she felt, and that she didn't have to be alone. But he didn't know how.

"You're staring at me like I'm an alien" she said, "I know you're probably angry with me I--"

"No" was the first word George said in her presence, and it was a firm word. The perfect word, "no, I could never be angry with you. I understand why you left and you weren't a coward--not then and certainly not now. We've missed you around here."

Angelina smiled, and it looked more like a grimace, like the smile of someone who didn't quite know how or who had forgotten what it meant to smile. George saw himself in her so much. "I've missed everyone as well...it's what brought me back to England, actually. I realized that you can't run from your past and who you are forever. I'd been working in a bookstore in Maine, living with my aunt. Remember I told you I was going to stay with an aunt? Well, she's a Squib which made it easier to settle into Muggle life. I thought it'd be...simple, to forget everything. After all Muggles had no idea that we'd been fighting a war right under their noses and even the magical folks in the States didn't realize how hard it'd been. They didn't have as many casualties.

"But that made it all much harder because sometimes I'd find myself wanting an old friend around to talk to, someone who would understand. And a few days ago I realized I needed to see everyone--to see you more than anything and I packed all of my things, said brief and vague goodbyes, and got the first flight to London. And now here I am telling you a story you don't want to hear and hoping you've been ok. How have you been, George?"

George stared at her in wonder, the way her bangs curved to right on her forehead. The casual bun her black hair was in, the eyeliner under her eyes and diamond studs in her ears. Here was this beautiful, broken girl in front of him being more honest and blunt with him than anyone had dared to be in a year. He wanted to tell her the truth. "I've been...transparent? I've just been living, you could say. I guess I've been okay, I mean I'm sane and prospering aren't I? And you're wrong, Angelina, I want to hear your story."

There was more that he wanted to say to her but he didn't know how. He wanted to close the shop for the rest of the day and see if she remembered all the little things about Fred that he did, see if her pain could help to heal his.

Angelina looked around and up the stairs where George and Fred once lived, where she spent many nights with Fred while George tested beta products. She read the "TESTERS ONLY" sign and looked at George, raising an eyebrow and grinning. "Prospering you are. I guess I better get going...it was good seeing you. I'll owl you."

As she turned her back and began to walk to the door, George felt a frenzy building inside of him. He couldn't let Angelina walk out this time. He wanted to believe that she'd owl him but after a year of nothing letting him know if she were dead or alive he couldn't do it again. He wanted to establish something there--a friendship, common bond, anything.

So before she made it to the door he took her hand gently by the wrist. She turned around and looked at him with an inquisitive look.

"I um...I could use some help on the register" he said dumbly. Really, Weasley? That's the best thing you've got to keep her aound?

Angelina laughed then, a light laugh that was completely real. It warmed George inside.

"Well, I do have quite the busy schedule, George Weasley..." she said as she took off her coat. She had on a blue blouse that was thin and showed the vague outline of her lacy bra. George realized he was staring and looked down at his hands. Angelina seemed to know the store like the back of her hand still--putting her coat on the hanger and grabbing an apron as not to spill anything on herself. She fastened it around her waist and joined George near the register.

"So, let's get started shall we?!"

George felt that her mood and tone were considerably brighter than twenty minutes or so before. Was it him making her that happy? And he felt that for the first time in months he didn't have to pretend to be happy, or be afraid to say what he was feeling. Everything was coming natural to him, George Weasley was becoming a real person again. And it'd only took an old friend and twenty minutes of her time.

He winked at her. "Let's get started, Johnson!" He went to the door and put up the "OPEN" sign.

And as he looked back at the girl at the counter waving at him and going to greet the early morning testers knocking at the back door, George Weasley felt that his heart might be open too.